Experience I'm a Doctor of Medicine. Licensed/certified physician and surgeon and specialist in Medical
Oncology and Radiation therapy in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and the European Union. Background in Radiation Therapy, Medical Oncology, Radiation Protection, Nuclear Medicine, Diagnostic Radiology, Gynecological Oncology, Clinical Pathology, Clinical Cytology,Hematology and Internal Medicine.
M.D. from the faculty of medicine, Royal Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. Have also been an exchange student at the Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem Israel. Former medical consultant, Swedish National Board of Radiation Protection. Former Police Surgeon and Medical Examiner, Stockholm Police Department. Former Chief Medical Officer, The Royal Guards, The Royal Horse Guards and the Royal Household Brigade, Royal Swedish Army Medical Corps. Now in private practice in Stockholm, Sweden.
I also answer questions in these other categories: General History,
Military History,
Brain Tumors,
Breast Cancer,
Colon Cancer
My dad who is 52 years old recently told me about a medical check up where the results he obtained was high in Alpha-Fetoprotein and would lead to liver cancer. What I am wondering is how long does it take for the liver cancer to develop and if there is a treatment for liver cancer, what it has to do with hepatitis. The important thing is that if there is any treatment available.
Thanks in advance
Answer alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is best used to monitor treatment results in the treatment of liver cancer NOT as a primary diagnostic tool! A special form of it AFP-L3 may be better as a primary diagnostic tool. AFP suffers from both false positives & false negatives. When it is present it often indicates that a liver cancer is present. But I'm not familiar with any use of it to predict a future liver cancers. If elevated other methods (ultrasound scans, CT & MRI scans without and with contrast can confirm or exclude the presence of any liver tumor, which should also be confirmed with at least a needle biopsy. It can also be elevated in other tumors like ovarian & testicular cancers and teratomas. So such tumors need to be excluded too.
